(May 13, 2009, The New York Times)
For the third year in a row, Mark Watte plans to rely on the aquifer beneath his family farm for three-quarters of the water he needs to keep his cotton, corn and alfalfa growing, his young pistachio trees healthy and his 900 dairy cows cool.
That is 50 percent more [...]
(April 26, 2009, The Sacramento Bee)
Any doubt that California is hip-deep in an epic struggle for water was put to rest earlier this month when an estimated 10,000 farmers and farmworkers marched 50 miles across the gasping San Joaquin Valley.
The goal was to heighten awareness about their water shortage, brought about by a third [...]
(April 26, 2009, The Oregonian)
“People think oil is something to fight about. Wait until we start running out of water,” said state Rep. Mike Schaufler, D-Happy Valley.
A handful of big farmers and their utility company engineered Oregon Oasis to get that water. They bought political access and nearly got their way.
“People who are well funded [...]
(Feb. 24, 2009, The San Diego Union Tribune)
The punishing drought that threatens to disrupt California’s economy could also exact a heavy toll on the environment, from the Anza-Borrego Desert to the mountains casting shadows on Lake Tahoe.
Water managers are bracing to get by with just a trickle of the normal deliveries from state and [...]
(Feb. 20, 2009, Central Chronicle)
If we don’t change our lifestyle and careless attitude towards Mother Nature, India will certainly experience severe water stress by 2020.- Satish Kumar Singh
Water catastrophe is now common phenomenon in every nook and corner of India. Day by day its graveness is mounting. Even people are killing one another on the [...]
(Feb. 22, 2009, RedOrbit)
California’s primary source of irrigation water is projected to go dry in 2009 due to drought, idling more than 60,000 workers and up to 1 million acres of farmland, federal officials said Friday.
California water officials declared a zero allocation policy for farmers who purchase water from the federally managed Central Valley Project [...]
(Feb. 20, 2009, MSNBC)
Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) Executive Director Timothy Quinn issued the following statement today on the 2009 water supply allocations announced by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources. The Bureau announced that some agricultural contractors stand to receive no water deliveries this year, while municipal [...]
(Feb. 21, 2009, John Laumer, Treehugger)
Last minute negotiations may have solved California’s budget crisis; but, a far more protracted problem shadows the future of civilization-as-they-know-it: water reservoirs are drying up; and climate change is likely to worsen the problem. Food prices throughout the nation will be affected in the short-term. Long-term prospects point to an [...]
(Feb. 11, 2009, Stephen Chu, Alternet)
Eight years of disinformation and muzzling U.S. climate scientists has left the public largely unaware of the catastrophes ahead.
Finally, we have a top administration official telling it like it is. Energy Secretary and Nobelist Stephen Chu told a Los Angeles Times reporter:
In a worst case, Chu said, up to [...]
(Feb. 17, 2009, Aguanomics)
Tom Graff of EDF asks:
Can we use the attention the drought has focused on water to address long-term issues, including most notably the effects of climate change, simultaneously with the focus on addressing this year’s immediate drought-related problems?…and here’s what I said:
Now is the time to introduce the radical (!) notion of [...]
(Feb. 14, 2009, The Houston Chronicle)
LUBBOCK, Texas — Reliable sources of clean water are the key to a successful economic future for Texas and without them the state and businesses could suffer billions in losses.
That was the dire message in a recent report from the office of state comptroller Susan Combs, a longtime West [...]
(Feb. 13, 2009, The Mercury News)
FRESNO, Calif.—Federal water managers plan to slash deliveries to more than 140 farms, Native American tribes and cities this year because there is so little water flowing into Lake Shasta.Those groups have special rights to California’s water, because they were drawing on the scarce resource even before the U.S. Bureau [...]
(Feb. 10, 2009, The Wall Street Journal)
MENDOTA, Calif. — Dwindling water supplies are compounding economic woes in California’s Central Valley, causing farmers to leave fields fallow and confront the prospect of going under.
The state’s water supply has dropped precipitously of late. California is locked in the third year of one of its worst droughts on [...]
(Feb. 6, 2009, China View)
Beneath a cloudless blue sky, the withered wheat grass barely 2 inches high slumped over gray, parched ground in Wei Liuding’s field.
A mere spark would set the field alight at this time of the year when the field should be green.
“I haven’t seen such a severe [...]
(Feb. 5, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle)
With experts predicting an historically dire drought in the state due to limited snowpack in the Sierras, Californian Steven Chu, Obama’s Secretary of Energy emphasized in his first interview since taking office how big the economic hit to the state and nation would be if water supplies stopped supporting California’s [...]
(Feb. 4, 2009, Dan Gleister, Guardian)
Bill Diedrich, a fourth-generation almond grower in California’s Central Valley, expects that many of his trees won’t make it through the year. “It’s one of the grimmest water situations we’ve ever faced,” he said. “It’s an absolute emergency and anything to get water flowing quickly is needed.”
The 400-mile Central Valley [...]
(Feb. 2, 2009, Redlands Daily Facts)
The city is teaming up with the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District and the East Valley Water District to sponsor a new water conservation system.
The system will use a weather station and weather-based irrigation controllers at the city’s parks to ensure fields are only watered when it’s needed.
“Every [...]
(Feb. 2, 2009, The Merced Sun Star)
An unprecedented shift of San Joaquin River water from farmers in the east Valley to those in the west could further complicate the scramble to save crops from drought this year.
At stake is precious San Joaquin River water, which has helped east-side farmers cultivate a multibillion-dollar economy on 1 [...]
(Jan. 28, 2009, Aguanomics)
This post is important and perhaps paradigm shifting. Let’s see if you agree…
It’s conventional wisdom that farmers “use” 70-80 percent of all developed* water supplies. But farmers do not use water in the same way as municipal and industrial (M&I) users do. When I use water to flush the toilet, that water [...]
(Jan. 28, 2009, RecordNet.com)
Water issues in San Joaquin County floated to the top of the state and federal legislative platforms approved Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors.
Flood protection, water supply and the fate of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ranked highest on the list of issues and concerns the county wants elected officials in Sacramento [...]
